It is the noble and wide-spread family of Sacken to whom this portion of the earth's surface has fallen as a share. Courland here protrudes into the sea in the shape of a nose, on account of which the farthest point is named " Domes-niis." A man possessed of such a nose may well be reckoned rich. It measures five Livonian miles of sea-coast, on each side, from the point to the base, and contahis upwards of thirty square miles, which, with all its forests, rivers, plants, animals, men, women, and children, are the exclusive property of one man ; and are here valued at — wha,t does the reader g-uess? — Neither more nor less than 400,000 dollars (60,000/.), for which this httlo Idngdom might be pm'chascd, were it not entailed. In former times, tlie value of land was even less. King Waldemar of Denmark, in the year 1347, sold to Brother Ileinrlch Tusemer, grand-master of the order of tlie brothers of the German house, the whole duchy of Esthonia (3oO square miles), with all the castles, towns, villages, farms, precincts, fiefs, spiritual and temporal, with the services of the inhabitants, of castles and towns, of horsemen, and of peasants with their carts, with all the pastures, meadows, lawns, forests, trees, marshes, groves, fields, and deserts, with all the iron, gold, silver, and other metals, all salt found in present or future times, all running water, mills, and tolls, with the produce of the chase and the fisheries ; to have, to possess, to keep, to use, to enjoy, to rule, with all rights, possessions, powers, and titles thereunto belonging, with the full use and exercise of all such rights belonging to the said duchy — for — 19,000 silver marks ! A price for which many a private house in St. Petersburg could not be purchased.
The castle of Dondangen, the most northerly in Courland, is built in the middle of its peninsula. It is one of the most important in the country, spacious and solid, and furnished with many buildings for guests ; it has even a regular theatre, and the refined and intelligent circles which meet there, to represent and witness the performance of classical dramas, form a striking contrast to the ideas entertained by many, of the barbarism of these northern nobles.
The coast of Dondangen is desolate, sandy, and flat ; tedious and dreary to the traveller, but dangerous and dreadful to the seaman. This nose, so fertile in comforts and enjoyments to its possessor, is a threatening and ominous monster to the ships which sail near it. At this point there stretches far into the sea a treacherous sand-bank, upon which many ships are lost every year. The danger is increased by a whirling movement of the waters on the eastern side of the peninsula, occasioned by a collision of the currents of the Baltic and the Gulf of Riga. It is said that any ship drawn into this whirlpool is inevitably lost.
Niia is the riattdcutsch for nose.
It is a Russian law that a third of the produce of wrecked vessels beloiif^s to the finders, and another third to the proprietor of the estate. If it is inconceivable how such monstrous laws as these barbarous old strand-rights are, should ever have been passed, it is still more inconceivable how they still remain in force among civilized nations. But it is so. The revenue yearly deiived from the wrecks on these ten miles of coast is very considerable. In former times it is said that the preachers even included in their public prayers at church, a suppHcation for " a fertile strand," meaning a fertility of wrecks.
To what crimes this frightful state of things has led is shown by the history of that Livonian nobleman, who some years ago changed the position of the beacons, in order to mislead the ships and throw them on his sands, after which he murdered the mariners and possessed himself of the cargoes, pretending that the crews had gone to the bottom. This is a well-known fact, as also that he was banished to Siberia on the discovery of his crimes ; but it is less generally known that he became a very useful member of society there, industriously cultivated, built and colonized a large district, till he died, the founder, benefactor, and ruler of a large village, with upwards of 1000 inhabitants.